Targa Great Barrier Reef – Inaugural Course Released

Targa Great Barrier Reef is promising plenty of excitement at the end of next month with the first ever running of a Targa event in Queensland.

The new event, to be based in Cairns from Friday 31st August to Sunday 2nd September, is modelled on the world’s largest tarmac rally, Targa Tasmania, which has been held annually on the Apple Isle since making its debut in 1992.

Targa Great Barrier Reef is round three of the four event CAMS Australian Targa Championship, and will see the attendance of all the leading teams and manufacturers.

The actual course itself has been a closely guarded secret for months now as preparations have been going on to provide a design, that not only gives competitors the challenges they expect from a Targa event, but also takes the field of exotic and classic cars to a number of key locations in Far North Queensland.

With over two hundred cars taking part, it will represent a cavalcade of motoring history from early classics right through to the latest exotic supercars and for people who live in the region, a very rare opportunity to see this many rare cars up close, right outside their homes in some cases.

The field will tackle 18 Targa stages across more than 900 kilometres of Tropical North Queensland roads.

The event officially gets underway outside the Reef Hotel Casino on Friday 31st August with cars leaving the official start from 7.20am through to 9.30am, before heading to the opening stage at Greenhill, designed to ease everyone into the event.

From there, they tackle the amazing Gillies Range before a visit to Atherton from 9.20am to 12.00pm, where local residents will be able to see the cars up close for the first time. The field then comes back down Gillies Range and heads to Lake Morris Road for the first run up to Copperlode Dam. After the field reaches the top, they will then come back down this road, before returning to the Cairns Convention Centre for the first overnight stop.

Saturday 1st September sees the field leave the Convention Centre from 6.45am to 8.30am and head to stages at Upper Barron, Lake Eacham and Glen Allyn before having lunch in Malanda, where again locals will see the cars close up from 9.20am to 12.30pm. The cars will then tackle Glen Allyn and Lake Eacham in the reverse direction, before again heading to Lake Morris Road, for a second run up and down this fantastic stretch of road.

Sunday 2nd September sees the final day of action for 2018, with the cars leaving the Convention Centre from 6.45am to 8.30am and heading straight to the amazing Kuranda Range, before stages at Malanda, Moregatta and Millaa Millaa and onto lunch at Ravenshoe, to again showcase the cars to the local community between 10.45am and 1.30pm.

The field will then return to Cairns a final time, via the Millaa Millaa and Moregatta stages in the reverse direction, before crossing the Official Finish line in the heart of Cairns from 2.30pm, with venue options still being assessed.

One of the world’s biggest champagne showers will happen at approximately 5.00pm, where all of 48 of the events competition winners celebrate on stage together!